Starling Fitness: Daily writings on Fitness, Diet, and Health

This article from Homemakers.com gives a list of foods that you should not buy for your family when going to the grocery store and their reasons. They also provide healthy alternatives. This is their list of no-nos.

• Soft Drinks
• Potato Chips
• Fruit-Flavoured Drinks
• Donuts
• Bacon
• Pre-packaged Lunch Kits (i.e. Lunchables)
• Ramen Noodles
• Chicken Nuggets
• Canned Lunchmeats (i.e. Spam)
• Meat Pies

Seeing a list like this makes me want to eat those things. I agree with all the reasons that they are items that one should avoid, but I still want to eat some Spam now. It’s very rare when I crave an item on this list, but seeing them all here together makes me think about them. I prefer articles that tell me all the great and delicious stuff I CAN eat.

I feel like I get a good workout when I can play on the medium level of DDR. This kid amazes me!

• DDR Juggler

I have no idea who this kid is or where he lives. Penn & Teller should hunt him down and feature him in their act in Vegas.

Via: Engadget – You’re not really any good at Dance Dance Revolution until you can play while juggling

• Boing Boing – High-speed Dance Dance Revolution kid juggling three pins

When we decide to lose weight, we are vulnerable. There were times when I felt like I was willing to do ANYTHING to lose the weight. Companies prey on that. One way to find out whether a product is good or not is to find an independent reviewer to rate the product. That’s where Consumer Reports comes in.

Consumer Reports is a non-profit organization that rates everything under the sun from cars to blenders. They have a large selection of health and fitness ratings. Just recently they rated the popular diet plans, putting Weight Watchers, Slim-Fast and The Zone (men’s menu) at the highest and giving Atkins the lowest rating.

They are a subscription site, so to see their ratings, you have to pay a yearly or monthly fee. There are a couple of their articles that are free, however.

• Stability balls – They can bolster your midsection

• Invest in your health – Which health products and services are worth paying for?

• Health benefits of weight loss vs. exercise

• Decide which machine best suits your workouts and available space: Treadmill vs. Elliptical

Each article is a simple introduction to its respective subject. The Stability Ball entry is really thorough with a few exercises demonstrated with descriptions and pictures. They are a good introduction to Consumer Reports as well. If you are planning on buying a piece of pricey exercise equipment and have no idea where to start, they are worth the one-time monthly fee to search their ratings. The $5 fee is the cost of one magazine, but you get to search four years of issues. Don’t get ripped off by cheap exercise products and unscrupulous nutritionists. Check it out before you buy it with Consumer Reports.

Via: Consumer Health Digest – May 10, 2005

I was thinking about quitting Weight Watchers. It made perfect sense to me. I have been losing weight on my own. I don’t need to pay Weight Watchers to lose weight. I tried to explain it to Mike, but he floored me with his answer: “You’re not paying to lose weight. You’re paying for support.”

He’s right. All those people who are angry at Weight Watchers because they paid all that money and didn’t lose the weight need to remember that they weren’t paying for results; they were paying for support. You still have to do the work.

You’re not paying for an eating plan, either. No matter how much Weight Watchers tries to protect their patent on their Flex Points System, it’s not what you are paying for. Those books and the Points Slider are worthless if you don’t use them. If you are willing to follow a program, you can find a healthy plan that’s online and free.

Going to Weight Watchers is a weekly renewal of your commitment to yourself. It’s a reiteration of your goals and desires. It’s a chance to connect with others that feel the same way you do. You could do this for free also, but you would have to set up the time and find a place to meet. You’re paying for the support and the weekly fee is cheaper than the cover charge to most bars.

As you can imagine, my butt was on the scale the next morning at my Weight Watchers meeting.

I’ve still been thinking about getting a personal trainer. The more I learn about exercise, the less I’m willing to get a personal trainer. The more I go to the gym and see the weird exercises that the personal trainers make their clients do, the less I’m willing to spend my money on one. I’m looking for someone who will tell me what I have to do to finish a 5K near the front of the pack. How do I find one?

• About.com – Choosing a Personal Trainer – By Paige Waehner

This article gives me a good idea of what to look for, but the most important piece of advice she gives is, “Get a referral from a friend who’s had success in reaching their goals with a personal trainer.” That’s the position I’m in now. I don’t know anyone who has hired a personal trainer and really liked them. I’m back to square one…

When you’re tired at Disneyland and the kids have dragged you all over the park, don’t take them to Innoventions. They will run in as many directions as there are kids. It’s noisy and there are lots of things to touch, but don’t fool yourself. There is no real learning going on there. It’s strictly entertainment.

(more…)

I’ve been looking at a blank page trying to think of something to draw that represents this week’s topic for Illustration Friday, “Nourishment.” I guess I’ll just have to paint with words.

Sometimes I eat when I’m not hungry. I eat because it’s the prescribed meal time. I eat because I’m scared of getting too hungry. I eat because I’m sad or happy or some other emotion that is wholly disconnected from hunger. It makes me think that the food that I’m eating is feeding something other than my body. How can I feed it without abusing my body?

Sure, I keep an eye on nutrition to deflect the damage, but almost every bit of food that passes my lips is feeding something other than my body. What is it? Is there something else I can give it instead of food?

I don’t want to believe it is a demon inside of me. It doesn’t feel like a demon that needs to be fought or a dragon that needs to be slain. I think it’s something closer to a wounded animal that always eats everything you give it because it knows that tomorrow there may be no food.

I was starved every summer by my grandmother. Could it be that this thing inside of me screaming to be fed is my inner child? She was told she was fat so many times that she believed it. Fat people eat all the time, don’t they? Fat people eat whatever they want whenever they want, right?

Well, no… When I was fat, I was always on a diet. I was either on a diet or a post-diet binge. I never just ate whatever I felt like. I ate according to “The Rules” or I ate against “The Rules.” Worse still, “The Rules” changed for each diet, but they were always basically the same. Even now, I’m eating according to “The Rules.” I’ve just figured out how to keep that little girl inside me full.

So, what’s the answer? How do I eat for nourishment instead of eating for this damaged child? What else could I give her that would heal her? What does she need?

Just a funny link to an entry about mistranslated menu items:

• Food Museum Blog: Menu English: We serve pork with fresh garbage!

After reading these entries, I think I would walk out of the restaurant lighter than I went in. I don’t even think I could drink the water…

My favorite: Horse-rubbish sauce

I’m beginning to think that health magazines are all screwed up. It seems like all the advice from the health and fitness magazines is all off center. The only thing I can blame it on is myopia. It’s like the health and fitness magazines have no idea what living in the United States is like. Our media has no concept of the nation. They only know NYC and L.A.

That’s why I am so happy to be writing for Starling Fitness. It is written by people who live in Utah, not NYC or L.A. We understand that it’s hard to “walk to the grocery store” or “take the stairs.” So many Mid-Westerners work in one floor buildings. We live in the suburbs where it’s a five mile trek to walk to anything. The health magazines think that they have skinny all figured out, but really all they have figured out is how to be skinny in New York.

This might come as a shock to you, but most of the United States ISN’T New York City.

That’s why health and fitness magazines keep spouting the same crap over and over. That’s all they can do. They can’t just hop in their car and drive up to the mountains for a strenuous hike. They can’t run for miles on country roads with only the sound of their breathing and the birds singing. They are selling health, but it’s such a narrow and urban view of it that it seems myopic.

Of course, Starling Fitness is just as myopic. We write about how to stay healthy and fit in Utah. It’s the only thing that we can do—write about our own experiences.

I enjoyed listening to this Strength Radio podcast last week and I thought that I would share it with you.

• Strength Radio – Cynthia Stadd Live! – Sugar Blues

She talks about how to recognize hidden sugar in processed food and the symptoms of too much sugar in your life. The thing I like best about these podcasts is that they are like a regular motivational boost. Sometimes they don’t do much for me, but then other times, I really enjoy them.